Negotiators in Latrobe standoff were being 'aggressive' with word choice, says expert

We are currently undergoing updates to our site and are working to improve your experience on all devices that you use throughout your day. If you should find a page or a story that is not working correctly, please click here.

Thank you for your patience,

TribLIVE.com Team

A crisis negotiations expert said police officers who called the man at the center of a nearly 17-hour standoff in Latrobe a “sissy” and a “loser” used unusual language, given the situation.

“It's a little aggressive,” said Randall Rogan, a communications professor at Wake Forest University and a nationally known expert in crisis talks.

“Generally, I would say that's fairly atypical in trying to facilitate negotiation with a suspect who is barricaded,” Rogan said Friday.

Through a bullhorn, police called to Scott Murphy: “Don't be a sissy,” “Quit being a loser,” “Nothing but a loser in there,” and “Come outside. Be a man.”

“You're inconveniencing a lot of people in the neighborhood,” negotiators told him.

Capt. Stephen Eberle, commander of the state police barracks in Greensburg, declined to comment on the tactics, saying “every one is unique to the given circumstance.”

But Rogan said the officers' strategy in this case can be tricky.

“They're attacking the person's ego, self-esteem,” Rogan said. “Calling the person out publicly creates even more of a challenge. It's already a high emotional intensity situation. ... Using such language can backfire.”

Negotiators work to establish a rapport with suspects so they will trust that police want to help, he said.

The strategy prompted a lot of discussion on blogs and social media sites throughout the day by some who deemed the language fitting and others who thought it was too harsh.

Don Hess, an instructor at the Municipal Police Officers' Training Academy at Westmoreland County Community College, said that aggressive tactics, such as yelling at the suspect or playing loud noises and music, are not used until a long period of time has passed.

“Obviously, the person is emotional, and your purpose is to get them to give up without collateral damage. What you see most of the time is using a softer approach,” he said.

Input from family and friends could change that, Hess said, adding that the tactics police used with Murphy were most certainly within police protocol.

But every situation is different, and each calls for a unique strategy, said Aaron Lauth, a negotiator with the South Hills Area Council of Governments' Community Emergency Response Team.

“It hinges on the person you're dealing with,” Lauth said. “It depends on their demeanor. The best negotiator is the negotiator that's able to play off the communication from the target.”

Lauth said he couldn't specifically comment on the tactics used in the Latrobe standoff.

“You have to feed off of what is evolving in the situation,” he said. “It has a lot to do with the demeanor of the subject reacting.”

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our
Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent
via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.